Citizens Advice loses funder

Citizens Advice Bureau Dunedin volunteers Patsy West (left) and Rosalind Andrew at work in Community House. Photo by Linda Robertson.

A regular funder to Citizens Advice Bureau Dunedin has
stopped its contribution, but the charity is busier than
ever.

Manager Ngaire Duke said the 53 bureau volunteers on the
roster at Community House in Moray Pl fielded about 11,000
inquiries last year and the bureau website had more than 2000
hits.

She had worked for the bureau for 20 years and it was the
most requests the bureau had had in a year.

''We used to average about 9000 to 10,000 [inquiries] a
year.''

The number of bureau volunteers was similar to past years, so
they were busier than ever.

''They do a fantastic job. They don't know what the next call
could be about. It could be a bus timetable inquiry or ... a
crisis situation.''

Pub Charity stopped its regular funding to the bureau because
it no longer had gaming machines in Dunedin, Mrs Duke said.

The bureau had a $225.65 net loss for the financial year
ending June 30.

Moyles Supervalue Supermarket owner John Moyle said the only
Pub Charity gaming machines were in the now-closed Royal
Tavern in Green Island, which was set to be ''knocked down''
in the next fortnight to make way for a new supermarket.

Pub Charity chief executive Martin Cheer said if every gaming
machine was removed from a city, it prevented Pub Charity
funding local organisations.

So let me get this straight - $10,000 can be found for
'street art' but not for the physio pool or Citizens Advice
Bureau? Prioritising what is important in our society and
what isn't seems to be all screwed up.